Brian Moran, M.D. — Does Your Doctor Report His Data or the Data of Others?

by Kaitlyn BradshawMarch 23, 2010

Today, it is very common for doctors to counsel patients regarding their prostate cancer diagnosis and the treatment options available. It is, however, very uncommon for doctors to track their own patients and the outcomes they have experienced. When many physicians are asked results of treatments regardless of whether it is surgery (open or robot) versus IMRT/IGRT or proton beam or brachytherapy, physicians do not have access to their own data and they will report information based on work done elsewhere. I think this is a problem. This includes complications ranging from incontinence rates to positive margins. So these are things that a patient should be aware of and when you visit your doctor, you should ask, “Are these your results or the results of others?” At Chicago Prostate Cancer Center, we quote our own data; the database of over 15,000 patients. So you can ask us just about anything, and we can give you an answer based on our data and our work.